| Aran Ward Sell | Blog & Writing |

To Blog and Only Blog

This might be the last blog I write for a little while.

On the other hand, it might not.

What I mean is, I’m taking the twice-weekly requirement off of Reasons to Remain for a while. I’m setting off to Adelaide on Sunday, and I’m planning to spend as much of the time until next semester kicks off at the end of February as possible on the move. Work and finance both constrain this, so I’ll definitely be in Brisbane for some of that time period—but nonetheless, movement will occur. And while I am scurrying around the place like a dingo off the leash, I really don’t know if I want to be typing up scheduled mini-essays. On the other hand, if I’m off doing really cool stuff every day that I just have to share, I might want to update it more than twice a week.

It’s been a fantastic project, though, the Wednesday-Sunday thing. A real exercise in self-discipline. Every week, twice a week, write something around 600-1500 words long that’s entertaining enough to make public. Sometimes I failed a little, especially mid-semester. There’s one or two posts hidden in the archives which are definitely filler. But …hell, I don’t reckon that one-or-two is bad out of thirty-seven. I’m quite proud of this little site. It’s got near-as-damnit 3000 views now, which is somewhere between more than a little and not quite a lot, and I’ve had far more nice comments about it than I expected. My favourite entries? Probably “Goodnight, Sweet Quince” and the Benjamin Disraelis. The Playing Games one was quite nice as well. My least favourites? Not telling. They’d get upset.

I think it’s helped my writing, too. Combined with doing a writing course at uni, having a part-time journalistic job and writing an 85,000 (85,268, actually) word manuscript, it’s kept the heat on. The high level of pushed output has tightened up my style. I can see this if I go back to early blog entries: they’re good, but there’s a lot of stylistic fluff in them which I would sharpen were I to redraft them now. I’ll probably (hopefully) think the same about the recent ones a little further down the line.

Next semester, I’ll probably return to regular updates, as much for my own sake as my loyal readership’s. It’ll likely be once per week, though, given that I’ve already talked about all the easy stuff: Brisbane, UQ, settling in, homesickness, planes, beaches, the square root of Christmas, and so on. If I do repeat the W-S thing, it’ll probably be with a normal entry on Sundays, and some kind of serialised fiction running on Wednesday…however that will only happen if I actually write something suitable, so don’t hold your breath. Or do, if you like, It’s a free country and all, but don’t expect any sweeties as a result.

Anyway, right now I’m fantastically busy, as previously mentioned. Before leaving, I have to get as many restaurants reviewed as possible (3 down!), see as many people as possible, especially those leaving Australia for good (Emil’s already left, though I did run into him in Roma Street Station today, giving me the chance to say goodbye all over again), pay rent in advance, buy my train pass, and so on. I should probably buy a rucksack sometime soon, as well. Oh, and I finally saw live kangaroos! And a platypus, which is the single most unexpectedly badass creature in existence. And I went to a games arcade and honed my Dance Dance Revolution skills. And I climbed King George the fifth. And I sat in a bus shelter outside McDonalds at 3AM reading a small book about apes out loud. And I saw a really dull 20-20 exhibition cricket match, which convinced my North American companions that cricket really is every bit as exciting as they’d imagined, despite my protests.

Meeting the kangruClimbing King George

And once all this japery is dealt with? I disappear to first Adelaide, then Melbourne. Then the (vague) plan is something like Sydney—>pass through Adelaide—>long train ride—>Perth—>long train ride again, in opposite direction—>hang around New South Wales for as long as my money and my job allow, probably in Sydney—>back to Brisbane to recuperate—>set off again. Possibly Tasmania in February, too. All the while, I’m going to do my best to write lots, and draw lots, and read things I’ve been meaning to read for ages (I have George R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones for the first leg, after which I think I will buy either Finnegans Wake or the Gormenghast trilogy.) That’s while on the trains, of course, for the breaks in between staring out of windows. When I’m actually in places, I’m going to …to…I’m bloody well going to Have Adventures!

About which I may blog, or I may not, or I may post daily in little mini-blogs, or I may save up for one big monthly uber-blog, or I may forsake technology altogether and send you all my adventures personally by pigeon.